The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1887-11-24
Mr. spurgeon and the Baptist
Union.

I l. Is an interesting study 70 observe
thoughtfuIiy the syidity with which any
detection from the Baptis: ranks Is seized
; upon and emphasized By the the Pedo-
baptist and secular press. Recently Mr..
Spurgeon withdrew from the Baptist
union, sort of general association OF
Baptist churches In Great Britain and
Ireland, and Immediately the secular and
Pedobsptist press announced, with ap-
parent relish, that Mr.. Sturgeon had Sc
ceded from the Baptiats. The Dallas News,
slyIy hiding behind the Brennan Banner,
gives Its readers the following extract:
The Baptist denomination all over the
world within the past few weeks has been
great! stirred up and sgitsted over the
action OF London's great preacher, the
Rev. Charles H. Spurgeon, in severing MS
connection with that church. His name
: more familiar 70 the religious world
han that Of any other preacher OF the
present age, and, after all the service rem
dsred MS denomination and TO the cause
of Cnristisnity-after working faithfully
IN the harness so long without once ex-
pressing doubt or wavering in his ale
glance 70 the church which be had done 20
much to place among the strongest pro-
Z Y.
the late Henry Ward Beecher, the great
Brooklyn pastor, and number OF ad.
vsnced thinkers among the gentlemen of
the cloth, he has gradually drifted away and
cat entirely loose from orthodoxy. This
seems the fate Of all preachers who Try TO
explain the doctrines of the Bible and OF
the Almighty By mans finite reasoning,
and who seek to advance fne-spun theo-
ries and reasons for everything taught in
the good book, instead of simply accept
ing them on faith.
Without, perhaps, meaning any false
hood, there is as little truth in this short
extract from the Banner and so timidly
circulated by the News, as any We remem-
Der ever TO have read. The affair Is exactly
the reverse OF the statements made in the
above, except the withdrawal, which was
about as follows: There have been a few
men in the union who denied such Baptist
doctrines as Imputed sin and righteous
ness" "The personality of the Holy
Spirit" and "Plenary Inspiration -
Against utilization with these men, Mr. .
! Spurgeon most emphatically remon-
streted. At the late union these men were
announced in the programme to preach,
which Mr.. Spurgeon understood to imply
! the cOndoning, if not, the approving of
| this new theology and, according to Mr..
Spurgeon, published in the Sword and
| Trowel:
"One thing is clear to US: We can not
be expected to meet in any union which
comprehends those whose teaching is,
upon fundamental points, exactly the re-
verse of that which We hold dear.
Z To Us it appears that there are
many things upon which compromise is
possible, but there are Others in which it
would be an act of treason to pretend to
fellowship. With deep regret We abstain
! from Assem- bling with those whom we
dearly love and heartily respect, since it
would involve Us in a confederacy with
those with whom We can have no com
munion in the Lord. Those who Danish
| Us may yet be of another mind, and enable
as to return. To pursue union at the ex.
pense of the truth is treason to Jesus. To
! tamper with His doctrine is to become
! traitors to Him. We have before Us the
wretched spectacle of professedly ortho-
dox Christians publicly svowing union
with those VINO deny the faith, call the fall
of man fable, and deny the personality
of the Holy Ghost"
AS matter of fact, believers in
! Christ's atonement are now in declared
religious union with those who make light
of il; believers in Holy Scripture are in
cOnfeieIacy with those who deny plenary
inspiration; those who hold evangelical
doctrine are in open alliance with those
who call the fall fable, who deny the
personality Of the Holy Ghost, who call
justification by faith immoral, and hold
that there is another probation after
death, and future restitution for the
lost. Yes, We have before Us the Bretched
spectacle of professedly orthodox Chris
tians publicly avowing their union with
those who deny the faith, and scarcely
concsaling their contempt for those who
cannot be gully Of such gross disloyalty
to Christ. To be very plain, We are un-
able TO call these things Christian unions;
they begin to look like confederacies in
evil Before the face of God We fear that
they wear no other aspect. To our in
most heart this is a sad truth from which
We cannot break away.
Mr.. Spurgeon broadly declares that
Fellowship with known an vital error is
participation in SIM and then sums up
thus:
During the past month many have put
to Us the anxious question, What shall
We do:' To these we have had no answer
to give, except that each one must act for
himself after seeking directions of the
Lord. In our own case We intimated our
course of action in last months paper.
We retire at once, and distinctly from tn
Baptist union. The Baptist churches are,
each one of them, self-contained and in
dependent. The Baptist union is only a
voluntary association of such churches, |
and it is a simple matter for a church or
an individual to withdraw from it. The !
union, as at present constituted, has no
power, for it has no doc
trinal basis whatever, and we see no rea-
son why every form of belief and |
should not be comprehended |
in it so long es immersion only is ac-
knowledged as baptism. There is no use
blaming the union for hsrboring errors
of the EXTREMIST kind, for, so far as We
can see, it is powerless to help itself, if it |
even wished to do so. Those who origi-
naly founded it made it without form
and void" aRd so it must remain. At
least we do not see any likelihood of
change. A large number have this state
of things in admiration, and will SO on
with it; we have no such admiration and
therefore have ceased from it. But we
want outsiders to know that we are in no
wise altered in our faith, or in our de-